


Phone + Tell

by panchostokes (badwolfrun)



Series: Prompt Fics [3]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 08:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21370939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/panchostokes
Summary: Riley tells Jack without actually telling him about Billy while he's still hunting for Kovac.
Relationships: Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) & Riley Davis
Series: Prompt Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540795
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	Phone + Tell

**Author's Note:**

> an anon sent me the prompt "If he’s going to treat you like shit I’m going to kick his ass.” which is just...such a Jack Dalton line, so I had to do this.

She was dreading the question, praying that Mac hadn’t spilled the beans to Jack–or rather, that Jack hadn’t _enticed _the beans out of Mac himself.

Then again, the way Jack asks Riley how Mac is doing during their bi-weekly phone-calls as Riley sits with a skee-ball in one hand and slice of pizza in another leads her to believe that perhaps Jack hasn’t actually spoken to Mac since his departure. 

“So…how’s Billy treating you?”

She gulps, but wastes no time in giving an answer, because Jack knows her better than she knows herself, leaving any gaps will make Jack suspicious, and though she so _desperately _wants to tell him, she can’t risk him dropping everything just to come home for something so stupid and silly. 

“Gu-Great, we’re great.” 

“You hesitated.”

_Dammit._

“What? No, no, no, things are great, Jack.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes. We’re great.”

“So you’ve said. Three times now. That’s your tell, honey, don’t even need to see you tucking your hair behind your ear to know that you’re lying to me.”

She becomes self conscious that she had just been twirling a few strands of hair behind her ear.

He clears his throat, she looks up, almost expecting to see Jack walking towards her with a plate of pizza and a soda. 

But instead she’s left alone, his voice in her ear, though she feels his presence in her heart.

“If he’s going to treat you like shit I’m going to kick his ass,” he reminds her. It’s not the first time she heard that from him, won’t be the last. 

And she’s more grateful for that than Jack will ever know.

“It’s…He’s…I broke up with him,” Riley stammers before she bits her lip. She drops the skee-ball before it pops out of her hands–her knuckles are white with rage that she thought she was over. Apparently not.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jack asks in a low gravel. She wonders where he is, if not at the pizza palace with her.

“Not really. Just…want to forget about it, really.”

“Understood.”

She breaks the fallen silence that was most likely spent on Jack’s end plotting revenge on the dishonorable Colton, she almost wants to tell him the entire story before he goes storming into the Colton’s diner guns blazing.

Instead she deflects by talking about him instead.

“Are you…How’s the mission? Are you getting any closer?” 

Jack sighs, falls silent, and Riley becomes aware of the thumping of her heart beat against her rib cage.

“Jack?” she asks. “You know, when you fall silent like that…that’s _your _tell.”

Jack chuckles, she hears a sniffle through the static.

“Not really,” he admits to her in answer to her question.

“I miss you.” 

“I know, sweetheart, I miss you too. All of you.”

“We can help, Jack. If you just tell us–”

“No,” Jack interrupts sharply. “Not tryin’a toot my own horn here, but this job is too dangerous for all y’all. The world needs Team Phoenix.”

“And Team Phoenix needs Jack Dalton!” she protests. She rubs her forehead, they’ve reached the part of the conversation where emotions heighten, and Jack claims he has to go. 

But she doesn’t want him to go. Not yet. Not now. Not _ever again._

To her surprise, though, this time, Jack stays on the line, longer than ever before, she even has to pause their conversation as she gets kicked out when the restaurant closes. 

Eventually he’s the one to end the conversation, though not without asking about Mac, first.

“Not…great, actually. You should give him a call.”

“Mm.”

She can hear his unspoken protests, _not until he calls me first._

“Jack, what–what happened between you two?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Understood.”

“Good night, Ri. I love you.”

“I love you too, Jack.” 

She tearfully closes her phone before wrapping herself in the Dallas cowboys snuggie on the leather armchair in Jack’s apartment.


End file.
